Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (born 5 February 1985 in Funchal, Madeira), better known as Cristiano Ronaldo, or by his nickname 'CR7', is a Portuguese footballer. He plays for Serie A club Juventus and the Portuguese national team. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest footballers of all time, and, by some, as the greatest ever.[12][13][14][15][16][17]

Ronaldo was once the most expensive professional football player of all time, after moving from Manchester United to Real Madrid for approximately £80m. At his presentation as a Real Madrid player, 80,000 people greeted him at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. This is the world record, breaking the 25-year record of 75,000 people at Diego Maradona's presentation for Napoli.

He is the first player to win the UEFA Champions League five times.[18] He also holds the record for the most number of goals scored in Real Madrid's history. Until this day, he remains the only player in the history of La Liga to score 30 or more goals in six consecutive seasons. [19]



Ronaldo was born in Funchal, Madeira Islands.[20] He has one brother named Hugo, and two sisters named Katia and Elma He was diagnosed with a racing heart (Tachycardia) at age 15, but he got surgery to treat it. His father named him "Ronaldo" after former U.S. president Ronald Reagan. He was expelled from school for throwing a chair at a teacher because he disrespected him. In 1997, at age 12, he went on a trial with Sporting CP, who signed him for a fee of £1,500. He then moved from the Madeira Islands to Lisbon, to join the Sporting youth academy. He joined professional football at 16 when he was called up to the A team.

Ronaldo began his professional career at Sporting CP. On 7 October 2002, Ronaldo played his first game in the Portuguese Primeira Liga, against Moreirense. He scored two goals as Sporting won 3–0. Ronaldo came to the attention of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson in August 2003, when Sporting defeated United 3–1 in the first game ever played at the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon. His performance impressed the United players, who told Ferguson to sign him.

On 12 August 2003, Ronaldo joined Manchester United from Sporting CP for a fee of £12.24 million. [21] He was Manchester United's first Portuguese player. He wanted the number 28, the number he wore at Sporting, but was eventually given the number 7. This number had been worn by George Best, Eric Cantona and David Beckham before him.

In the 2007/08 season, he became the only player in the last 25 years to win both the "FIFA World Player of the Year" and the "Young Player of the Year" awards in the same season. In that season, he scored a total of 42 goals and won the European Golden Boot, an award which is given to the top scorer of league matches of every European national league.

Ronaldo scored his first and only hat-trick for Manchester United in a 6–0 win against Newcastle United on 12 January 2008.[22]

He won the first FIFA Puskas Award in 2009, which means he scored the best goal of that year. The goal was a 40-yard strike into the top-left corner against FC Porto on 15 April 2009 in the Champions League quarter finals. That goal was the only goal of the game.[23]

Ronaldo joined Real Madrid on 1 July 2009 for a fee of €94 million, which was a world record transfer fee at the time.[24] He wore the number 9 in his first season as 7 was taken by Raúl González, he had to wait until he left the club in the summer of 2010 to wear number 7.[25]

He made his debut on 29 August 2009, in a La Liga game against Deportivo de La Coruña. He scored a goal and Real Madrid won 3-2.

He became the clubs all-time top scorer when he scored 5 goals against RCD Espanyol in a 6-0 away win. This brought his total goal tally to 230 goals in 203 games. The previous record holder was Raul.

On 18 April 2017, he became the first player to reach 100 goals in the UEFA Champions League, after he scored a hat-trick in a 4-2 extra-time win against Bayern Munich. [26]

On 10 July 2018, He joined Juventus of Italy and signed a 4 year contract worth 112 Million Euros. [27][28] [29]The transfer was the highest paid for a player over 30 years old. People called it "the deal of the century".

He scored his first goals for the club on 16 September against US Sassuolo. Juventus won 2-1 at home. Three days later, on 19 September, he was controversially sent off against Valencia C.F. for apparent "violent behavior". He was crying as he received the red card and said he "did nothing".[30]

Ronaldo began his international career in the 2002 UEFA U-17 Euro. He kept progressing through the youth national teams until his first senior game for Portugal on 20 August 2003 against Kazakhstan. He became Portugal's all time top scorer when he scored twice against Cameroon in March 2014, with Portugal winning 5-1.[31] He won the Euro 2016 and the 2019 UEFA Nations League. Although he had to leave the game early because he got injured in the UEFA Euro 2016 Final, Portugal still won 1-0 in extra time. He has played at 4 FIFA World Cup's: 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018.

Ronaldo is able to play on both wings and also as a striker since he is very strong with both feet, even though he is naturally right footed. He is also one of the world fastest players.[32][33] He has good heading ability because he is over 6 feet tall and jumps high. He is also known for his free kicks; he likes to use the "knuckleball" technique, which is where the ball spins very little and creates an unpredictable motion. He combines this with his high shot power, making it hard for goalkeepers to stop his shots.

Ronaldo has been criticized for "diving" by many people, including his Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson. [34][35]. He has also been criticised for being arrogant, such as complaining for not receiving fouls, having unrealistically high self-confidence, not celebrating with teammates after scoring goals, and getting angry after losing.[36] [37]Examples of this are when he threw a reporters microphone into a lake before a UEFA Euro 2016 match[38], and negative comments made at the Iceland national team after playing against them.[39]

Ronaldo's father, José Aveiro, died of alcohol-related liver disease at age 52 in September 2005 when Ronaldo was 20. [53]Ronaldo said that he does not like to drink alcohol, but has on some very few occasions.[54]

Ronaldo became a father on 17 June 2010 following the birth of his son, named Cristiano. He was born in the United States through an American surrogate he met in a restaurant, and Ronaldo announced that he had full custody. Ronaldo has never publicly revealed information about his son's mother, but he says he will reveal it to Cristiano Jr. when he gets older.[55] Ronaldo was in a relationship with Russian model Irina Shayk from 2010–2015.[56] On 8 June 2017, Ronaldo confirmed on Facebook that he had become the father to twins, Mateo and Eva. They were born in the United States to a surrogate mother.[57][58] In November 2017, his girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez gave birth to their first daughter, Alana.[59]

Ronaldo is a Roman Catholic. He does not have tattoos because it would prevent him from donating blood.[60]

In 2006, He opened his first fashion boutique under the name "CR7" (his initials and shirt number) on the island he was born in, Madeira. In December 2013, Ronaldo opened his own museum called Museu CR7, which has all of his trophies and awards from his career.[61]

A film about his life and career, titled Ronaldo, was released on 9 November 2015.[62][63]

He also has an airport named after him, Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport.[64]

He is currently the most followed Instagram user, with over 200 million followers as of February 2020.[65]

In June 2018, Ronaldo was given a suspended jail sentence of 2 years and a fine of €18.8 million for tax evasion.[66]

In 2017, a woman claimed she was raped by Ronaldo in Las Vegas in 2009. Documents say that Ronaldo paid a woman $375,000 to stay quiet. In July 2019, Las Vegas said they would not charge Ronaldo because there was not enough evidence.[67][68][69]



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